Chapter 23: Folasciathán
Rainbow Dash had dealt with dragons before. Hay, she'd flown right up to one and kicked its snout. She had faced down the possessed (or corrupted, nobody had ever told her which) escapee goddess of the moon. She had fought Changelings in Canterlot with almost no warning. She had survived Discord. And since embarking on her quest to rescue Twilight, she had also had her mind ransacked by what she guessed was the functional equivalent of a kelpie Celestia, as well as somehow survived attacking Caelum the Star-Maker.
None of those beings, however powerful, had quite the same impact on first sight as the dragon she found herself staring down on now.
The dragon – she guessed it was maybe male, but she wasn't a dragonologist and truthfully on bad days she would've had difficulty determing Spike's gender if she hadn't known him so long – was asleep. Possibly. At the very least it was laying down and coiled up, one gigantic wing covering its long tail, its long neck curved around so its head faced the direction Dash had come from. It was, at least, almost five times the size of the dragon she'd dealt with back on Equestria. It put Spike's greed form to shame in size. How it had managed to worm its way into the mountain, she hadn't a clue.
In the ruddy light of the crystal-studded walls, the dragon's scales gleamed red – red like someone had dipped it into a vat of blood, red like fire devouring a city, red like the distant glow of the star Proxima Centauri. Its wings were red; its claws were red, darker red like dried blood. But when one of its great eyes opened slightly, she could see that its eyes were the color of molten gold.
She didn't even notice the buggane standing in front of the dragon until it took a frightened step backwards as the huge beast shifted slightly in its repose. Her target! The whole reason she was in the cave! Somehow, she managed to fight her fear and awe down and lower herself to the floor, to minimize the chance of it noticing her. She had to find out why that buggane was here!
“Leave,” Ghealach whispered urgently. “Leave now.”
Rainbow Dash was silent, listening instead for the sound of the buggane's voice. The odd acoustics of the cave made it hard to pick out words, but she definitely could understand what was being said.
“Big one,” the buggane addressed the dragon, with something as close to reverence as a buggane could produce. “Speaker send me to talk with you.”
The cave shivered as the dragon exhaled again. Its eye re-opened slightly – just enough to fix the buggane with an irritated glare. “Why couldn't your Speaker contact me himself?” it asked languidly, with an unmistakably male voice.
That's the same voice from the buggane camp! Dash realized with a start.
“Speaker tired from shaman work.”
The dragon hummed, a slow bass rumble that shook the cave again. Its voice, when it came again, was as relaxed as before. Dash guess that, maybe, it had been sleeping for a while and had just now woken up.
“Of course he is,” said the dragon. “What is so urgent that a messenger was sent directly to my resting place?”
“Speaker think noisy thief-bird was more than just noisy thief-bird.”
“Is that it?” the dragon rumbled angrily, tiredness vanishing like water hurled into the heart of a star. His body shifted again, wings pulling in, tail slithering along the floor, legs pushing the whole bulk of the beast around to face the buggane better. Terrified, the buggane waddled back a few steps.
“Leave now, Rainbow Dash,” Ghealach whispered, even more urgently – and was that fear Dash heard in her voice? “This is your final chance. Run.”
“Not yet,” Dash whispered back, not even glancing away from the scene unfolding below.
“Is that it?” the dragon rumbled again. “Did I not make this same deduction while I was in direct contact with his mind? Did I not already determine that your Thunderbird was, in fact, one of my sisters? Did your Speaker forget that – or did you forget the real message on your way here?”
“No!”
The dragon lifted its head off the cavern floor and arched its neck so it was looking down on the buggane with half-open eyes. “Then why did your Speaker send you to deliver a message he knew I already knew?”
“Speaker thinks thief-bird was Killer!”
“Killer?” The dragon growled. “I have no time for your simplistic superstitions and race-memories. Killer was killed.”
“Killer came back! New bugganes come from kelpie places and say so!”
“Killer came back. How very...interesting.” The dragon slowly lowered its head again. “Alpha Centauri, back from the dead. Perhaps I will have a challenge after all, if your Speaker's guess proves accurate.”
“Leave!” Ghealach hissed again. “If you do not leave now, you will die.”
“It hasn't seen me yet,” Dash whispered back, “and I can't leave without Streamwalker and the rest!”
The dragon chuckled then, low and dangerous. It rose suddenly, standing up and contorting its neck and tail in a luxurious stretch, pulling its wings in and finally shaking itself like a dog. Then it raised its head up and gave a toothy grin.
“I smell dust,” it said, chuckling again. “Dust, and steel, and kelpie sweat. Be on your finest behavior, buggane – we seem to have an important guest with us. Don't we, Ghealach?”
“Run!” Ghealach roared.
Leaping to her feet in a clamor of metal and hoof-on-rock, Rainbow Dash ran – just as a wash of magical fire consumed the section of ledge she'd just been crouching on. She beat her wings and hurled herself forwards into open space, abandoning all caution as adrenaline took over and another blast of fire singed her tail. The roaring laughter of the dragon chased her down the cavern – and so did the sound of the beast crashing through a wall of rock as it started its pursuit.
“I can smell you still, old enemy of mine!” the dragon laughed. “It's been a long two thousand years, Ghealach – but I can still remember the taste of your puppets!”
Ghealach appeared next to Rainbow Dash again as the former pegasus swooped around another bend in the cavern – and another cascade of rocks behind them alerted her that the dragon was still coming. Ghealach did not look pleased.
“You somehow managed to find the sleeping place of the dragon Folasciathán,” she announced coldly. “And, in disobeying me, you have awakened him and alerted him to my activity on Domhan. You are proving to be an exceedingly unreliable tool, Rainbow Dash.”
“Who is - “ Dash gave up trying to pronounce the dragon's name; it sounded something like 'FolashyaTHON” - “that?”
“A dragon, and an ally of Proxima Centauri,” Ghealach answered. “And if my guess is true, the leader of the newly-organized bugganes. In which case it would appear that I was not the only one planning to exploit the current instability.”
The cavern ahead of Dash lit flame-red as Folasciathán emitted another gout of fire, but she dodged around another bend and it splashed uselessly against the wall behind her – which then exploded in a cloud of dust and falling rocks and glinting crystals and red scales as the dragon hurled himself through it with a feral snarl. Rainbow Dash beat her wings even more strongly to put more distance between herself and him – but she still only just escaped incineration and true death as another blast of dragonfire scorched the cave wall ahead of her. She couldn't help but laugh as another column shot past her and she did a loop around it – it was exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. She'd never felt anything like it.
“Have you abandoned the last shreds of your sanity?” Ghealach demanded, less than amused. “This fire will kill you!”
“Only if he can hit me first!”
Folasciathán laughed. “Or is this not another puppet, Ghealach? Have you chosen a champion perhaps, as my adoptive sisters once did? Ha! You, who prided yourself on being so different from them – have the years made you just another 'meddler'?”
Ghealach snorted in irritation. The dragon went on.
“And who do I have the pleasure of killing today?” he asked, before sending another blast of flame after her. “Who might it be that wandered into my lair?”
“Catch me and I might tell you!” Folasciathán answered with an amused roar.
Another blast of fire forced Dash to dive low, but this blast followed her in a sustained column as Folasciathán managed to slide his bulk around the turn behind her. She spiralled out of the way of it, letting the fire trace a blazing line across the ground where it stuck like napalm. Another blast forced her even lower, until she was practically running. The next turn came up, and she leapt at the wall and then leapt off that around the bend as Folasciathán slammed into the same wall, almost breaking through it, and snapping at Rainbow Dash's tail as she rounded the corner in full. He roared again, almost deafening her in the enclosed space, and missed with an almost point-blank gout of flames as she pulled off a perfect double-Immelmann turn and almost kicked the dragon's nose.
“You are a more skilled flier than most thunderbirds I have killed,” Folasciathán said. “And almost artful as well. It is a shame the Sentinel has claimed you for her own. I would have enjoyed facing you when I moved on Beta Centauri.”
“The tunnel to the surface is three turns ahead,” Ghealach told Rainbow Dash. “You may yet escape.”
“Not without Streamwalker.”
“Loyalty is admirable, but this is quite literally suicidal,” Cloud Ferry declared as she materialized next to Ghealach – without wings, which didn't seem to impact her ability to stay aloft at all. “You called, Ghealach?”
Rainbow Dash flew faster, diving and rolling around the next turn and snapping her wings back out to swoop low over the cavern floor, trying to spot Streamwalker and the wolves. She knew that she couldn't fly off with them – she didn't have any way to carry all three, even if her wings were strong enough – but if she could deploy a bit of magic, she could turn them all invisible and slip out while Folasciathán searched for them. Or – the idea hit her like a lightning bolt – she could just teleport out with them! Perfect!
She spotted them then, Streamwalker and Burrfang and Greenwatch, huddled together defensively in a trench in the cavern floor. She circled above them once and prepared to dive down.
“Ghealach, I need magic!” she shouted. “I'm going to grab them all and then you teleport us out!”
“The dragon is blocking me, Rainbow Dash,” Ghealach replied. “Teleportation is beyond your meagre skill. I could send the magic, but I would have to wield it as well – which whatever spell he is using will not allow me to do.”
“What about that soul-bound thing?”
“The mind and its skills are separate from the soul. Leave them.”
“I can't leave them here! That dragon will kill them!”
“If you attempt to flee with them on foot, it will kill you,” Cloud Ferry pointed out. “We have to go!”
Folasciathán laughed as he clawed his way into their segment of the cavern, squeezing his bulk through the narrow corner. “A wonderful bit of practice this has been, Ghealach, but centuries ago we warned you not to interfere. I am afraid I cannot allow your champion to live,” he declared with feral glee.
“Leave, Rainbow Dash! Abandon them and fly!” Cloud Ferry pressed.
“I can't leave them here!” She threw herself into a dive. Leaving a friend behind to die was unthinkable to her. She’d never be able to forgive herself if she left without even trying.
“Then I will have to leave them for you.”
The world seemed to jerk suddenly, and Rainbow Dash felt the sickening feeling of being shoved aside, hurled out of her own body. She was looking at herself from the outside – watching herself as she pulled out of the dive, narrowly dodged being incinerated by Folasciathán's latest blast, and flew for all she was worth towards the next bend in the cavern, and the tunnel mouth beyond. It took her a few seconds to realize what had just happened.
Cloud Ferry had taken control of her body!
“No! Go back!” she screeched. By some hidden instinct, she shoved back at Cloud Ferry's mental presence, and for a brief, glorious instant, she was back in the pilot's seat – but then a cold and implacable mental mass, as wide as a moon and as frigid and painful as the empty void, reinforced the phantom, and it was like she was trying to shove a planet out of its orbit. She rebounded off her own mind and felt the ground vanish from under her, and she screamed all the way into the black pit of unconsciousness.
It was a small mercy, really. She couldn't watch as her body was forced to do the single most abhorrent and disloyal thing she'd ever done – abandoning a friend to die in the darkness of the roots of Folasciathán's hollow mountain.
-----
She was being carried roughly down long hallways, somewhere in her mind. Their specifics were hidden from her by a veil of tears.
She'd left them behind. They had trusted her, they had been loyal to her, and she had left them. And now they were dead.
“You are a tool, Rainbow Dash,” Ghealach said. Her voice was absent of emotion. “That was your fate. I rescued you from permanent dissolution and bound your soul to mine. As Folasciathán put it, you were made my champion.”
The hallway was made of clouds. Familiar-seeming pictures were on the walls. Pegasi, maybe? She realized in her misery that, somehow, her wings were feathered again.
“I feel I gave a great degree of leeway to you. Leeway that was not deserved, and that you abused.”
They came to a stop next to a door with a foal's picture of a rainbow on it. Scrawled in large letters on the paper was her name – Rainbow Dash. She knew that picture. It had been taped to her bedroom door for years as a filly.
The door slammed open and Ghealach hurled her in. The Dust Sentinel stared down at her then, face expressionless.
“And even though you abused that leeway, I admitted to myself that your abuses of it could very well work out in my favor in the long run,” she said to Dash coldly. “Streamwalker and his village were bound to me from your first rescue of those foals, but Streamwalker with more effort could have been made a powerful spokesman for me among his kind. Your aiding of him in the investigation of the buggane councils provided me with information that could very well have accelerated my plans immensely. Even your discovery that Folasciathán was the bugganes' leader would have been useful, had you just. Listened.
“I do not trust Cloud Ferry,” she went on. “She is, in fact, a greater liability in some ways than you. You, I could count on to not be able to escape me before I allowed it. But your loyalty – your suicidal lack of self-preservation – forced my hand. I tolerated it before, but if a single wolf is enough to tie you down in front of a charging dragon I cannot tolerate it further. And so I will store you here while Cloud Ferry moves to a new village, a new wolf pack, an eyrie – and starts over.”
“You can't - “
“I already have, Rainbow Dash,” Ghealach interrupted her. “You fail to understand something: from the moment you woke up on my moon, your mind was not your own. It belonged, in large part, to a being infinitely older, infinitely stronger, and infinitely wiser than yourself. Without me, you would have had to fight hordes of phantoms to accomplish something as simple as moving your leg. Without me, you would have slipped into useless insanity in days. Without me, you would be permanently, irretrievably dead. Your mind, your body – both were made and maintained by me.
“The idea then that you had any true power to directly disobey me, in light of that, is laughable.”
“Why here?”
“You have displayed a foalish lack of regard for the integrity of your own body, and a foalish and ridiculous belief that you are somehow invincible,” Ghealach answered. “I found it fitting to imprison you within your foalhood bedroom.”
The door began to swing closed. “Goodbye, Rainbow Dash,” said Ghealach as it did. “Perhaps you will have time to contemplate your actions while genuine progress is made.”
It clicked shut.
Streamwalker is dead because of me.
Rainbow Dash broke down and wept.
It's always darkest just before the dawn...
Merry Christmas everyone 
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Double Christmas Update!?
Awesome.
5423672
And I'm hoping to tack a few more updates on soon after this too! Maybe I'll be able to conclude the story without anymore months-long delays...
Geez, wonder who this dragon is. You've made it clear that dragons are some sort of interstellar - maybe intergalactic - travelers who find planets and excite the mantel into volcanism, but I wonder just how strong they are. No doubt they couldn't actually stand against the cosmic bodies head-on, but apparently, at least with Ghealasch, they don't have to.
Makes me wonder what's up with Io.
Also makes me wonder the rule of awareness with cosmic bodies. Stars are aware. The moons are aware. But not the planets?
*Is disappointed when not a SMAC crossover*
5423739
I've mentioned Folasciathan before, waaaaaay back like twenty chapters ago in a passing conversation between Twilight and Beta. Seeing as how that's like two years and 100,000 words ago, I won't be surprised if nobody remembers such a minor detail at the time
As for the rules of awareness - stars are aware (all of them), and moons can become aware; I think I'll explain how in the story. Or, if I don't, I'll stick it in the author's note for the chapter it would've been in. Planets, though, aren't part of the reincarnation cycle like mortals and stars, and are completely alien to both. They are aware, but they have no reason to intervene in mortal affairs, and are instead content to merely soak up energy and drift through space humming to themselves.
Io in this universe would basically be Beta's nightmare of what letting dragons loose would cause - it and Venus. If a young and vigorous dragon (ie, not Taistealai, the one who found Domhan) found a good planet, they would dig as many volcanoes as they could to get plenty of delicious rocks and crystals up to the surface. Older ones who want to raise a brood need to be less destructive - immature dragons (ie, Spike) are oxygen-breathers and can't yet survive in a vacuum or hostile atmospheres, and so turning the world into a new Venus would be counterproductive.
5423742
I suppose the title would make it sound like that, wouldn't it...heh...
5423826
What if someone invents a Death Star?
5424816
Well now...we might have a problem then
Why doesn't this story have 3000 UP votes?
I just read through it from the start. Gave the first chapter a taste-test and liked it, so I kept going. Its one I'll be keeping up on as it continues, so please do keep up the good work!
5425128
Thank you, friend! I'm glad you enjoyed it
Would you go easy on Rainbow Dash already! If you hate her so much, then why are you writing a story featuring her! Also, Folasciathan may very well be my favorite My Little Pony dragon OC ever. How many chapters long will this story be?
Yay, another ancient being of incredible power and questionable motive. Just what this story needs.
5428030
Hey, the more the merrier, right?
5427907
Thanks! I'm not quite sure how many more chapters the story will be - minimum of nine I think, adjustable upwards if I decide some points need more chapters to adequately cover. Basically, if this fic doesn't finish with over 150,000 words I've not done my job right
Did you possibly read any of the Dune series by Frank Herbert before writing this?
5438248
I have read Dune, and it was before writing this. I don't recall any instances of it being a conscious influence on this story but it's almost guaranteed to have left an unconscious mark. Great series
5432145
Yay, the cluster**** gets cluster****ier
Darn it, still want to know what will happen with Rainbow Dash.
6946928
Yeah, I sorta dropped off the face of the planet at a bad time, didn't I...
Real life's been chaotic for a while and I sorta lost track of the fandom and this story. Haven't written anything, original or fanfic, in almost half a year now, at least anything fun XD I'll have to re-read this behemoth if I want to reboot it, hopefully my writing abilities haven't degraded in the meantime.
6948090
I don't normally like to bug authors for updates, but not finding out if all of Rainbow Dash's ridiculous sacrifices and effort pays off makes me sad :(
I always felt this fic was underrated; it's a great plot and setting, but it leads with a lot of disagreement and misunderstandings between characters, which I think scares many readers away before the main action on the other world begins.
6948090 woot! Good to see you aren't dead!
I've just read this thing and it is really amazingly done.
Sorry guys, but the Helghast have already claimed Alpha Centauri.
Ok i'm still not liking RD being in the story like this. I think the story could have been better. If it was mostly about Twi/Alpha. And not have a side story like this with RD. It should have been about Twi/Alpha going through all these new changes and revelations. And instead of having such a big side story as this. You could have had a small one. Such as Celestia and Luna dealing with and finding out. That Twi was Alpha all along.
Now besides my gripes with the story i still liked it( Besides RD) These are what i think could have been done instead of me just telling you what i found wrong with the story.
I think it could have been a good idea For Alpha and Discord to be good friends. Could have even been interesting if they were romantically involved. And the loss of Alpha was a major reason for Discord going crazy in Equestria. And as a result being in stone. Could be interesting in my opinion.
Secondly is the second story you have. That seems to encompass the main story. And what i mean by that is the story with RD. Is a side story. A story meant to go along with the primary story. And in this case the primary story is Twi/Alpha dealing with everything happening. But this story has the secondary. Take up the Primaries spot in this. When it shouldn't. ( Sorry if that made little to no sense. If not i'll try to give a better explanation)
And then i said this before. How you put the story up. Just made finding Twi/Alpha being a Star. Less exciting and less special. In my opinion it would be more interesting if it was a very few people who were stars. And no moon people or anything.
Something else that might be interesting. If Twi/Alpha. Was the sole ruler of her own Star System. And have her sister's be the rulers of either a shared Star system or their own. While also having Twi/Alpha the more powerful of them all. And the more prosperous Star System. This could also tie into the war the three of them had. Cause this seems to make more sense to me then them having 3 stars in one system.
And then i wish you would make the people. More appealing. Something like have them be ponies or have Twi/Alpha the Ruler of Humans Star
Then last idea have Twi/Alpha be the Daughter of the Queen of the universe or i forgot what she is called. While also Give the Queen of the Universe and actual physical place. It lets us get a better idea of how powerful someone can be with their palace design and ect...
So those are my thoughts. I like the idea of this a lot. Not the biggest fan of some of the stuff in this. But i would love if you did a rewrite of this. Its a good story with some flaws but nothing to ruin it. So i hope to see this continued or rewritten. And worth being put into my Favorite section
P.S I know my grammar isn't that great i'm up latter then i usually am when i actually go about writing a review. So sorry about that. Also sorry if this comes across rude at all. Just trying to tell you the best i can.
7700148
Your grammar is passable and you're not being rude, though I disagree with most of the stuff you've brought up
Since you went to the effort of writing it I'll play ball and try to explain some stuff though.
Having them just be more ponies seems infinitely bland to me, and would constrict me really to what people expect of ponies - or worse, what I expect of ponies. Shifting things to kelpies/wolves/thunderbirds, from an out-of-universe perspective, let me be much more free with my worldbuilding, and let me make a world a bit less familiar to Twilight for her to adjust to, thus giving more material to work on for her story of remembering and trying to re-integrate into Domhan. Humans would be even worse - they don't belong in Equestria or worlds based on it, in my opinion.
Some of your suggestions seem to shift Twilight/Alpha towards being more of a Mary Sue almost. I can't really see any reason that her having her own star system that's better in every way than the others who are forced to share one would be good, and likewise for her being vastly more powerful than the others. Nor can I see the reason why she should be the most powerful star of all, or why Celestia should be ignorant of her interstellar siblings. Alpha Centauri is indeed a star - but there are literally trillions of stars in the sky, with whole vast swathes of them being larger, brighter, older, and wiser than her. Stars aren't special, especially not itty-bitty ones like her. Twilight/Alpha isn't the most powerful, and really shouldn't be the most powerful - if she were OP the story would suck.
On the palace bit...what, a metaphysical and gigantic representation of the universe itself, large enough that entire suns flit around within it like gnats, with galleries opening up into the pitch-black void of space itself, isn't enough of a palace for you?
Caelum is the creator of creation here, and her palace reflects that by being a representation of creation.
RD's story is meant to be a second plotline running in parallel with Twilight's actually, neither is intended to be subordinate to the other - they were about to merge into one to finish the story off before I dropped into the Forever Sleep of unannounced hiatus. I will admit though that somewhat less thought was put into RD's plotline than Twilight's, and if I had to go back and rewrite I'd definitely rework the earlier Rainbow Dash stuff to make a little more sense with her character. A lot of folks complained about her being a bit OOC at some points, and while given what she was subject to, a bit of behavioral instability is to be expected, I should've been a bit more explicit about that and not left it implied or explained in comments.
On Twi/Discord...that is one of my two preferred ships (the other being Twi/Pinkie) and I believe I have hinted at it once being a thing in this story a few times. The first part of Chapter 1 for example was the most explicit it got...still feel like I ought to rework that. It exists for no reason other than author gratification and it's quite embarrassing to me
But in the end, I feel all shipping in this story should be left to innuendos and hints. It's not a romance and nobody's getting together to make hot steamy horse love. RD and Twi are just friends, Alpha and Discord fell out long ago, Cloud Ferry is proudly single, and Ghealach is a moon.
Thanks for giving your thoughts, I love feedback even if I disagree with it
To anyone reading the story still: I'm trying to cap this off, I really am, but life got hectic and confusing and dark at points for me for a while. Things are stable again and I'll see if I can get y'all some closure. I kinda cliffhangered you at what was intended to be the "dark before the dawn" and that's p rude honestly
7703008 With the Twi/Alpha having her own system. In my own opinion it could make more sense. Then whats it currently at. Twi/Alpha having a more prosperous and more powerful Solar system. Leading too her other sisters becoming more and more Disdained relationship. Leading too them becoming Nightmares.
And yeah i can see how she might seem like a Mary sue if you did that. Completely forgot about how easy it is to make a character seem like one. Wasn't really my intention. When describing that. And with her being more powerful. I'm used to reading stories where sense she is the Element of magic. She will eventually be more powerful than even Celestia. And i guess a better way to explain it. Is i was more hopping for. There still be tons of other stars. But Not having them all be able to go into the Celestial Court. Not all of them are experienced enough to be noteworthy in the court. Something like a Tauri star.
But some of the suggestions. That i recommended. Such as her being the Queens Child. Just recommended to make Twi/Alpha. more interesting. And there would also be more of a shocker. Not all of them are meant to be taken seriously. Although i do like the idea of her being the Daughter.
Anyway thanks for replying to me. And what not.
7703008
I'd be ecstatic for a continuation/completion of this story. I'd have even been satisfied just having the rest of the plot dumped if there was no chance of it being finished. I really want to see all of Dash's insane risks actually pay off in the face of everyone thinking she's insane.
Good story, is there ever going to be another update?